It’s crunch time for DeSantis transition

With the holidays now passed, it’s time to focus on this upcoming reality – in 6 days, Ron DeSantis will be sworn-in as Florida’s new governor. It’s unlikely that DeSantis’ transition team got to take off much time during the Christmas-New Year break. There are still critical jobs to fill and new policies to implement so DeSantis can hit the ground running on January 8.

Wednesday, DeSantis continued to round out key members to his executive team including:

— Chris Spencer, Policy Director Spencer most recently helped manage Transition Advisory Committee efforts for Governor-elect DeSantis. With experience in both chambers of the Florida Legislature, Spencer brings a wealth of policy and procedural experience to the new administration. A former Chief Legislative Assistant in the Florida Senate, Spencer helped to manage the legislative office of Senator Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg).

— Justin Caporale, Director of External Affairs Caporale worked as a senior Advance and Operations lead throughout the 2016 Donald Trump campaign before serving in the White House as a Special Assistant to the President and the Director of Operations for the East Wing. Caporale previously served as the Director of Operations and Chief of Staff for Concerned Veterans for America and most recently worked as Director of Advance for the Ron DeSantis for Governor campaign before serving in his current role as Executive Director of the DeSantis-Nuñez Inauguration.

— Amanda Emmons, Director of Scheduling Emmons previously served in the Governor-elect’s Transition as the Director of Scheduling, a role she also held throughout the DeSantis-Nuñez campaign. Prior to her role in the campaign, Emmons worked as a Staff Assistant to Senator Marco Rubio where she served as a grant and intern coordinator for the Senator’s office.

— Makenzi Mahler, Director of Appointments Currently serving as Deputy Director of Recruiting for the Transition, Mahler previously served as Deputy Finance Director for the DeSantis-Nuñez campaign. Before joining the campaign, Mahler spent over three years at the Republican Party of Florida where she worked on strategic initiatives and in finance for the House Majority effort.

“This team of qualified, dedicated and talented individuals will help us deliver on the issues that matter most to Floridians from economic growth to water quality and more,” said Governor-elect Ron DeSantis. “I’m proud to announce their service to our state and I have every confidence in their commitment to the people of Florida.”

In addition to the appointments, three of Gov.-elect DeSantis’ transition advisory committees will meet this week trying to fine-tune recommendations to make to the incoming governor.

Later this week the Public Safety and Government Operations transition committees meet.

Next week the pomp of the inauguration takes over Tallahassee as the new Governor, Lt. Governor and members of the Cabinet – Attorney General, Chief Financial Officer, and Agriculture Commissioner – are all sworn-in to office.